Cruise for a Graduation Present

[crazypoohbear]

My DS is graduating from HS next May.
He really wants to go on a cruise for his graduation present. I am thinking of doing this because it will also be DH 50th birthday.
We did the Disney cruise in 2005 and everyone loved it. but.... I am thinking cost wise I would like to try a different cruise line.
Here are the stats.
Traveling in June 2008
Caribbean
5-7 days
Ages of travellers 50's, 40's, 18, 17, 13 years old.Maybe 20's.
We want to have night life for the adults and things for the kids to do also. The Graduate would have "aged out" on the Disney Cruise line for the teen center.

The boys' would like to see Cozumel, and St. Lucia and the Bahamas.
Remember Money IS an object.


What do you recommend for a cruise line and why. And what is there for "Big Teens" to do on board???

[dw2649]

I've heard Royal Caribbean is good. They have lots of activities for teens such as rock climbing and ice skating as well as party spots. They also have some ships that are based out of San Juan, Puerto Rico year round, a huge plus given the destinations that you want to go to. A cruise out of Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Galveston, etc... could not visit all those ports in one 5-7 day trip because they have to spend one day each way at sea cruising to and from the caribbean islands.

When we took our cruise for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary, we took Princess Cruises. We were on the Star Princess (which has since needed an unscheduled major repair due to a fire at sea (look back at the news headlines and you will see what I am talking about)). She was a nice ship, but did not have a whole lot of recreational activities such as rock climbing. It did have a night club, but my brother 17 year went up there and declared that it was not good and never went back. Star Princess only does sailing to the Caribbean in the wintertime (she does European cruises in the summertime I believe). I think the Caribbean Princess, which is one of the sister ships to the star, does Caribbean cruises year round and has Movies Under the Stars (MUTS). At least last I heard she did.

Our cruise agent told us not to book Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). I'm not sure why, but since they specialize in cruises and take losts of cruises a year, I figured that they knew what they were talking about.

A Couple of pieces of advice.

1.)If you do not already have one, get a good travel agent that specializes in cruises. He or she will most likely be able to get you the best deal possible. They will also make sure that you have all the formalities done on time, such as passport information that Customs needs ahead of time (by about 2 weeks at the very latest on most ships) and emergency contacts information that must be sent to the agency at the same time that passport info must be submitted.

2.) Read your contract. Know what is included in the price of the cruise and what is not. Many cruise lines include meals, water, and OJ (and similar type drinks) in your price but do not drinks such as sodas and alcoholic beverages for which you must pay extra, unlike disney.

3.) If money is a real issue, you might want to forgo the private balcony or oceanview stateroom and go with an inside stateroom. That way the money you save can be spent on other things, such as tours or activities at the places you visit.

4.) Tours or activities booked directly with the operating agency (as opposed to the cruise line, which just arranges the tours for you) can save you at least half the cost of the same tour booked on the ship. Be aware though that if the ship misses a port for any reason you will have to bite the cost of any tour you reserved independently for that port. Also, if your tour is late, the ship will not wait for you (they will if your tour is a tour arranged by the ship) and you will have to bite the cost of getting yourself to the ships next destination, which could be quite expensive.

5.) Buy a good guidebook for the areas you end up visiting and make use of it. I bought 3 or so guidebooks off of Amazon.com before we went on our cruise. We saved probably hundreds of dollars buy using these guidebooks. They will tell you when it is a good idea to do a self guided tour and when you should consider booking a tour (like if the place is a good 30 to 60 minute drive).

6.) Buying Trip insurance is a good idea. Generally it should cost less that 2% of the cost of your cruise, and should cover things such as you needing to cancel your trip at the last minute or you missing the ship's departure at the port of embarkation due to a late arriving flight due to weather or mechanical failure. It may even cover situations where you need to fly home early (trip interruption) or if you miss your ship in a port due to things such as a late arriving tour.

I hope these tips have helped you out a bit.

Edited to Add: This thread should be in the Vacation Planning Beyond Disney forum. Maybe one of the mods could move it for you?

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

Who's the one in the 20's?